Rob Brydon's Gavin and Stacey reluctance

Welsh actor Rob Brydon has admitted he was initially reluctant to play the part of Bryn in BBC One series 'Gavin and Stacey'

Rob Brydon was initially reluctant to take part in 'Gavin and Stacey'.

The actor - who plays Stacey's comical Uncle Bryn in the BBC One series - admitted he was "wary" about playing another Welsh funnyman, but loved the script so much he decided to give it a go.

He explained: "I'd known Ruth Jones (Nessa) since school and I'd worked with James Corden (Smithy). I was wary about playing another comical Welsh character after Keith Barret in 'Marion and Geoff', but I loved the script.

"I like to think that I helped shape the character of Bryn, that James and Ruth had me in mind when writing."

However, Ruth Jones was not the only famous face the 45-year-old star knows from his school days, as he once stole Catherine Zeta Jones' lunch money.

Rob added to Reader's Digest magazine: "Her mum stopped me at the gates one morning and said she'd forgotten to give Catherine her lunch money and would I give it to her? I said I would and promptly forgot all about it.

"On the way back from town after lunch, we'd always stop at this sweet shop. I remember going, 'Wow, I've got all this money!' So I blew it on either cola cubes or pineapple chunks. Then that night I realised the money was hers. I saw her years later at the Baftas, but she was good enough not to mention it."

Read the full interview in the October issue of Reader's Digest, out tomorrow (30.09.10).